Sojourner Truth’s America

Description

This fascinating biography tells the story of nineteenth-century America through the life of one of its most charismatic and influential characters: Sojourner Truth. In an in-depth account of this amazing activist, Margaret Washington unravels Sojourner Truth's world within the broader panorama of African American slavery and the nation's most significant reform era. Born into bondage among the Hudson Valley Dutch in Ulster County, New York, Isabella was sold several times, married, and bore five children before fleeing in 1826 with her infant daughter one year before New York slavery was abolished. In 1829, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a domestic, preached, joined a religious commune, and then in 1843 had an epiphany. Changing her name to Sojourner Truth, she began traveling the country as a champion of the downtrodden and a spokeswoman for equality by promoting Christianity, abolitionism, and women's rights. Gifted in verbal eloquence, wit, and biblical knowledge, Sojourner Truth possessed an earthy, imaginative, homespun personality that won her many friends and admirers and made her one of the most popular and quoted reformers of her times. Washington's biography of this remarkable figure considers many facets of Sojourner Truth's life to explain how she became one of the greatest activists in American history, including her African and Dutch religious heritage; her experiences of slavery within contexts of labor, domesticity, and patriarchy; and her profoundly personal sense of justice and intuitive integrity. Organized chronologically into three distinct eras of Truth's life, Sojourner Truth's America examines the complex dynamics of her times, beginning with the transnational contours of her spirituality and early life as Isabella and her embroilments in legal controversy. Truth's awakening during nineteenth-century America's progressive surge then propelled her ascendancy as a rousing preacher and political orator despite her inability to read and write. Throughout the book, Washington explores Truth's passionate commitment to family and community, including her vision for a beloved community that extended beyond race, gender, and socioeconomic condition and embraced a common humanity. For Sojourner Truth, the significant model for such communalism was a primitive, prophetic Christianity. Illustrated with dozens of images of Truth and her contemporaries, Sojourner Truth's America draws a delicate and compelling balance between Sojourner Truth's personal motivations and the influences of her historical context. Washington provides important insights into the turbulent cultural and political climate of the age while also separating the many myths from the facts concerning this legendary American figure. Title......Page 3 Copyright......Page 4 Contents......Page 6 A Word on Language......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 9 Abbreviations......Page 18 Introduction: The three Lives of Sojourner Truth......Page 20 Part I Bell Hardenbergh and Slavery times in the Hudson River Valley......Page 27 1. African and Dutch Religious Heritage......Page 39 2. “Home Is Like a Grave”......Page 49 3. “Better to Me Than a Man”......Page 65 Part II Isabella Van Wagenen: A Preaching Woman......Page 84 4. Like Hagar and Her Children......Page 95 5. “A Rushing Mighty Wind”......Page 115 6. Sanctification and Perfection......Page 130 7. “I Will Crush Them with the Truth”......Page 150 Part III Sojourner Truth and the Antislavery Apostles......Page 183 8. The Antislavery Vanguard, 1833–1843......Page 191 9. “The Spirit Calls Me There” A Sojourner Is Chosen......Page 205 10. A Holy City......Page 223 11. The Cold Water Army, Olive Gilbert, and Sojourner’s Narrative......Page 245 12. The Bloodhound Bill and Intensified Activism......Page 263 13. The New York Campaign......Page 281 14. “God, You Drive”......Page 299 15. “I Go in for Agitatin’”......Page 330 16. Truth Is Powerful......Page 358 17. Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land......Page 387 18. “Was Woman True?”......Page 429 19. “I Am on My Way to Kansas”......Page 453 Epilogue: Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant......Page 477 Notes......Page 481 Index......Page 550